Japan Planning Thread Part 2

[Takoneko]

This is a thread for anyone planning a trip to Japan. All budgets and styles of trip are welcome.

I got so much out of the first thread and would love to be able to continue the conversation with everyone who has been so helpful.

I fly tomorrow morning!

First Thread

@QueenMabby I hope you have a fantastic time! Please tell us all about it.

@shannie If I was arriving at that time I think I’d go for an airport hotel. Getting to sleep as close to a normal time as possible would be important to me because I’m quite susceptible to jet lag if I’m not careful with my sleep schedule. Someone upthread recommended the Villa Fontaine, which we’ve booked for the night before our flight home next year.

Asakusa is a nice area. I haven’t stayed there before but have visited and it’s nice and not too busy away from the temple.

I fell in love with Hiroshima this year and can’t recommend it highly enough. Giving it three nights is a good call. We stayed 5 nights and could happily have spent longer. It’s an amazing base for day trips because the surrounding region is amazing and the Shinkansen connections are excellent. There’s so much more that we want to back and see in that region future.

@2025istheyeari How has the rest of your trip been? Sounds like you were having a fantastic time.

Thanks so much I can see there’s no clear answer. Has anyone done the cycling I was talking about ? I’ve gone right back to the first thread again and I’m taking notes this time. Apologies as I’m not up to date - a lot of you are still planning in the first thread 😂

There’s definitely no one right answer. It depends on on how well you cope with a late night really. I am a creature of routine, so really susceptible to jet lag. My sister is a shift worker, so doesn’t really need to worry about that.

I’ve not done the cycling but there were definitely people on the first thread who had done it. Hopefully someone will be along who can advise. If you do it, do take a bit of time to explore Onomichi itself. It’s an incredibly charming place. We took the ropeway up to the top and then walked down through the temples and cat alley.

@shannie we considered cycling the Shimanami Kaido but have decided against it (time and endurance reasons!). I have since found a much shorter bike route along the Kibiji cycle path which I think will suit us better. We’re staying in Okayama for three days so it fits in well with our itinerary.
I will try and find the link. (We’re going in October).

https://www.okayama-japan.jp/en/spot/10851

Thank you that’s great

We have been caught up in Typhoon Wipha a bit in, that our flight from Ishigaki to Hong Kong was canceled tomorrow as the typhoon is heading HK way. We took today's flight rather than wait till Monday so have left Japan a day earlier than wr wanted to sadly.

But we had a great time in Japan travelling with two older teens DDs. I feel it's really opened their eyes to the opportunities if you look East at a very opertune time for them. We stayed in the following.

Ueno Tokyo (6 nights) at Minn Ueno in a 4 person serviced apartment. This location was perfect for us - 5 mins from all the transport options of Okachimachi but in a super quiet part of town. I was very happy we had not stayed in Shinjuku- i was happy to visit but it's not for me as too busy.

Gion Kyoto (4 nights) - at Rinn Gion Shinbashi. This is a brand new hotel and very reasonably priced and totally lovely. The location was perfect- a lovely 10 min canal walk to the Keihan line - perfect for day trips to Osaka and Nara and city buses.

Hiroshima ( 2 nights) - we stayed near the station which had great food options at the Sotetsu Fresa. This was fine but our smallest room my far. Our double was tiny but the Dds twin which thankfully was interconnected was much bigger.

We had a one night bounce in Fukuoka (Hakata) near Canal City and then a slightly shortened stay in Ishigaki (4 nights) at SevenxSeven in another serviced apartment which was lovely but had construction nearby. Our room was unaffected but could have been. The pool was awesome.

Overall we have found the accommodation totally fab and amazing value. Great quality, much more affordable than home ( Rinn was £50 a night a room as an example and felt lux). We booked a lot direct with the hotel as they offered good deals. It help we were traveling in summer. The heat has been fine for us.

@Riverswimmers That sounds like a fabulous trip. I’m going to look up the Ueono accommodation. We’re very torn on where to stay for our next trip, but Ueno is a definite possibility. It’s a shame you’ve had to cut Japan short but Hong Kong is also awesome. I hope you have a safe and pleasant onwards journey.

We try not to book the standard double rooms in Japanese chain hotels. Twin rooms are often a lot bigger and in many cases not that much more expensive. We book twins if there isn’t a more spacious option with a kingsize bed. On our 2024 trip we booked twins and my sister and her DP opted for doubles. Their rooms were so much smaller than ours.

I am so excited to have found this thread!!

I’ve been wanting to go to Japan and have been talking about it for probably ten years.. and finally we have flights booked! (And that is all) - we’re going Easter holidays 2026 and I still can’t believe it.

My children have been playing with an itinerary for a while but it’s all up for grabs because I have no idea and I feel totally overwhelmed.

I really wanted to go to Nagano for the Monkeys but they’ve left it out because they said in April there won’t be any??

This is what they have - all advice so gratefully welcomed!

Tokyo – 4 nights
Hotel Rose Garden (Mar 30–Apr 2)
Asakusa, Skytree, Otter Cafe, Harajuku, Shibuya, TeamLab Planets, Odaiba

Tokyo Disney – 4 nights
Sheraton Grande Tokyo Bay Hotel (Apr 3–6)
Disneyland, DisneySea

Hakone – 1 night
Hakone Fura (Apr 7)
Onsen stay, travel from Tokyo

Kyoto – 2 nights
Kyomachiya Ryokan Sakura Urushitei (Apr 8–9)
Fushimi Inari, Gion

Osaka – 3 nights
Oriental Hotel Universal City (Apr 10–12)
Universal Studios, Aquarium, Cup Noodles Museum

Back to Tokyo – 1 night
HOTEL TAVINOS Asakusa (Apr 13)
Final day, depart & fly Apr 14

i would love thoughts!

Hi @Florally!

We are going on almost the exact same dates. We are going to the snow monkey park. The monkeys are there year-round.

Do Disney towards the end of your trip. Doing it on the weekend before school terms start will be hell on earth in terms of crowding. The weekdays the following week will be very quiet. We went on that week in 2024 and rode every ride in the park in one day (per park) without any paid fast passes. I don’t think you need 4 nights for Disney. 2 nights would be fine and you’d have 2 spare to stop and see the monkeys in Nagano.

I’d also advise staying more centrally in Osaka. It’s a fantastic city and universal city is a bit out of the way. There’s so much to enjoy there. A day trip to Nara is something I’d really advise anyone with 3 nights in Osaka to make time for too.

We’ve just got home after a fab trip! Thanks to everyone for advice and especially @Takoneko !!
sorry to hear Ishigaki was cut short @Riverswimmers but hope you enjoy Hong Kong! We were also there at the tail edge of the typhoon but other than v cloudy skies we were lucky!

We enjoyed the rest of our trip, Takayama was amazing, such a lovely place and we took a trip to Hida Furukawa which we loved. Hida folk village was also fab and the hotel was good with private onsens available and a roof terrace with great views. There were also free drinks and it was amazing value- Wat Takayama.

We met our friends in Gifu on our rainiest day, it was a convenient point between where we both were and Tokyo. We booked a hotel with amazing pool and gym for our teens and managed to use the hotel bikes to get to the gondola and up to the castle, then walked to the giant Buddha and old town Gifu wasn’t what I was expecting and I wouldn’t go back, but it worked well for us for one night.
We finished up in Tokyo where we didn’t really have any plans other than a fab restaurant we found last time. We stayed in Ginza this time which we found really convenient ( we stayed in Ueno and Hamamatsucho last time, we loved Ueno but disliked Hamamatsucho!). We did lots of shopping, went to the Imperial Palace Gardens, Scramble Crossing, Shinjuku, Harakusu, TeamLab Borderless ( which was good but we much preferred planets), Kappabashi Street ( which we were really disappointed with!), and ate at Ise Sue Yoshi as our holiday treat- can’t recommend this place enough for a special meal, it’s amazing! I did park run ( walk!) with my friend yesterday and after eluding us in Kamakura, Hakone and on the bullets, we saw Fuji!

My thoughts on October vs July trips are that we had much bluer skies in October and it wasn’t as hot, it was busier though I think.

in terms of our itinerary, we wanted to experience more of rural Japan and we definitely did that. We didn’t see temples like the ones in Kyoto so I definitely think Kyoto is a must for first time visitors. Next time we’d stay somewhere for a minimum of 2 nights when we arrive. We had 8 hotels in 15 days and while it was generally fine it wasn’t the best idea staying in Kamakura for one night when we arrived.

Takayama and Kanazawa were our favourite places this time, I’d love more time in Kanazawa. We liked Ishigaki but we stayed outside the main town which meant we needed a car and like I said previously, lots of restaurants were only open weekends so food was a bit trickier! Swimming with manta rays was phenomenal though and the trip to Taketomi was really good.

It’s such a good value place as well, we had amazing food for a fraction of what you’d pay here and we didn’t have a bad meal. We bought lots ( Uniqlo did well out of us but stuff was around half the price it is here).

We definitely want to go back, next time we’d like to stay in Onomichi for a few days and do the cycling trail ( we considered it this time but were worried about rain) and Kyushu. I think we may go in and out of Osaka as I love Tokyo but feel we’ve done most of what we want to do there. I also want to see Nagano, do the alpine route and possibly Shirakwago but would leave that for a separate trip.

For anyone planning a trip, you’re going to have the most amazing time!

@2025istheyeari I’m so glad you’ve had an amazing trip. We’re spending 4 nights in Kanazawa, so it’s nice to hear that you really liked it.

Thanks! It is fab! The Ninja temple was an amazing place,we didn’t book in advance but got there when it opened and got on the first tour. It was in Japanese but they gave us a great English guide book which covered everything. Kenrokuen gardens are lovely to have a wander, and the geisha and samurai districts are fab too. We found some fabulous restaurants. The sushi is excellent, especially the crab. We could easily have spent more time there ( we had 2 days). You will love it!

Just coming to the end of the first leg of our trip. We’re leaving Tokyo for Hakone later today. Tokyo’s been amazing, if hot! Luckily no rain though. We’ve got plenty done but still masses left unseen.
I’m really looking forward to Hakone as although I’ve enjoyed Tokyo, it is exhausting!

Glad you’ve loved Tokyo @QueenMabby we're just back and agree, v hot, thankfully not too humid.

Hakone is definitely cooler and really beautiful. If you haven’t already done so, I’d highly recommend the Hakone Freepass, saves queuing for tickets everywhere, when we went( on a Monday out of school holidays), there were queues at some of the stations. We found a great local restaurant for lunch- Daimasa Honten in Hakonemachi not far from the boat stop, we all really enjoyed it and it was amazing value for money. Have the best time!

Thanks for the recommendation! Will check it out.

Great Thread!

We've recently been thinking about Japan - won't be until Spring 2027, so some time away to plan.

One thought with me is the food. I have an intolerance to ginger, how hard is it to find ginger free food?

My biggest tip is if you think you want to buy something just buy it - Japan is so well priced and good value. I should have shopped more. We did shop a lot and filled an exta bag but now I'm in Hong Kong everything is 20- 30% or more than in Japan. Uniqlo as PP is much cheaper than home and Gu even cheaper still but still great quality. BAPE much cheaper in Japan if your dc into this (this we did buy!).

Completely agree! Bape much cheaper, ds bought a few T-shirts. Onitsuka Tiger v cheap as well and I bought an iPhone. We filled an extra bag and a half!!

@Skissors have fun planning! I would imagine you will be ok, I have a mollusc allergy and did a google translate sign to show at restaurants, all of them were very amenable and helpful and either did things without mollusc or advised me what not to order. For Eki ben, we used Google translate to check ingredients. Most of the sushi places we went to would very easily have been able to skip the ginger on the side, so I definitely wouldn’t let it put you off!

Easy. Japanese food does use ginger but it’s not an ingredient that makes its way into everything. There’s plenty of foods that don’t contain any.

Especially the larger cities and tourist destinations have a very international food scene, and most hotels will have Western breakfast. Even most Japanese foods don't have ginger. The main food staples everywhere seem to be grilled chicken kebabs, fried chicken nuggets, and grilled mackerel. Ginger might be in ramen, so might be best to avoid all ramen and katsu curries, but ginger is mostly pickled as a topic, but the pickled toppings are usually served on a separate plate/bowl, so grilled fish, sashimi, omlet and rice are usually served plain with pickled ginger and other pickles on the side. My son won't tolerate any spices at all, and we had no problems at all as most foods were very, very plain (if you didn't add sauces/toppings). I think they don't even add salt to the rice. I would say Japan is the best country food wise for an autistic child with ARFID.

Thanks, Nelly - this is good to hear.

@2025istheyeari glad to hear you had a good trip. Please can I ask about your October weather? We’re going this year on October 7th, and it would be good to get feedback on the possible climate, and what type of clothing we might need. I need to think about my packing list soon, otherwise the shops here will be full of winter clothes. You mentioned blue skies, which is encouraging!